Restaurant Business and Operations Plan

Disclaimer: This essay has been submitted by a student. This is not an example of the work written by our professional essay writers.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UK Essays.

Keywords: delicias, restaurant, business, customers

Executive Summary

Delicias unlike other typical restaurants will provide a unique excellent food at value pricing within an entertaining atmosphere. Delicias will be setup due to an increasing demand in value for everything the food purchased; customers are not willing to accept anything that does not meettheir expectations and a need for entertaining while dining. Delicias will provide soups/salads, appetizers, desserts and entrees to the San Diego market.

I will setup this business to provide the customers with value for their purchase and to realize profits from the business. The business will be able to meet its objective by offering value pricing and entertaining environment to its customers. This will be a lucrative business and I expect to open other restaurants with a similar setup in future.

Restaurant Description/Concept Statement

The restaurant will start out as a simple sole proprietorship I will be the owner. The founder will focus on both the operation and financial management of the restaurant. The founder has a Masters Degree in Business Management and Administration and has been working for various restaurant companies for over 5 years. The wealth of experienced gained and the educational background of the founder enables the founder to successfully manage and run the restaurant. The founder has chosen to engage in sole proprietorship to ensure that business decisions are made quickly. Secondly, sole proprietorship has been preferred because the founder has not found any other people with similar business ideas. The business will be small thereby generating a small profit margin and there could be problems while sharing profits.

Mission Statement

Delicias will be a great place to eat since it will be combining an intriguing atmosphere with excellent and interesting food that is also very good for the people who eat within the restaurant. I am looking for fair profit and a rewarding place where my employees can work.

Vision Statement: Delicias restaurant is a place where customers come to relax, get enteretained while they relax and enjoy delicios food. From the moment our customers walk into the the restaurant, they are welcomed by a warm atmosphere, entertaining music and courteous employes.

Restaurant Concept

Physical Location

Delicias restaurant will be located in San Diego, California at La Jolla. La Jolla has been chosen for the restaurant location because it has higher scale neighborhoods, where the people would more easily pay for a more expensive lunch or dinner. The restaurant will be a modern style architecture, simple yet elegant.

Restaurant design

The patio area will be full of seasonal flowers and palm trees and a nice water fountain to accent the outdoor ambiance. The inside will have high ceilings and a stone floor with modern tables and chairs. The kitchen will be at one end of the restaurant, with a long horizontal window, so the guests can enjoy the process of their food. A variety of good wines is also necessary in a great restaurant, so it will need to have a wine cellar, I would like it to be also visible to the guests so they can see our wide variety and how beautiful a wine cellar can be. Tablecloths, plates, glasses and silverware will also be simple, very modern and spacious to provide the "look" for my plates.

A study conducted in Britain in 2003 among the restaurant owners showed that the restaurants can increase their profit margins by playing classical music within the restaurant while customers eat. This is because diners spend an average of 10% more per meal while listening to classical music than while listening to other forms of music such as pop music. A restaurant which has no music is unlikely to record high sales because the customers are likely to be bored and this reduces their spending. The ambience of a restaurant is a very important aspect. At Delicias, clients will expect to have a nice time, where they eat delicious food and relax. Therefore, my clients will enjoy a nice classic music while they are eating and bounding.

Services

Delicias will focus on soups/salads, appetizers and entrees. Salad recipes will be used to provide the customers with a diverse and unusual menu. Delicias has also realized the demand of the customers in San Diego for healthy dishes and will be providing a wide mix of healthy food to meet this demand. The customers around San Diego like going out with their friends and family members to places where they can relax and get entertained and are willing to spend money to get these services. Therefore, I want an American style so they can feel comfortable like if they were going to eat at home, but with the touch of fine dining. The touch of fine dining will be giving by the ambience, decoration and food presentation.

Collateral

Several items will be given to the customers as collaterals. The aim of these items will be to ensure that the customers are assured of the quality of the service and products the restaurant offers them. The collaterals will also create a good relationship between the management, the employees and the customers. Some of the collaterals which will be given include printed menus, business cards and gift cards.

Marketing Plan

An effective marketing plan will be drafted and implemented and will comprise a combination of local media and the restaurant marketing programs. The in-store marketing programs are considered more effective because they will be utilized at the restaurant while having direct contact with the customers. This will include the use of table tents, in-store tour given to every new customer, outdoor marquee message changed weekly, wall posters, yearly birthday parties and grand opening celebration. Other media will be engaged once the restaurant expands. For example, Radio campaign will be used to advertise our products and services and the management will make live presentation on the radio about its services. Newspaper campaign will also be used to place several large adverts throughout the month to explain the restaurant concept to the customers in San Diego. The best form of advertisement will be word of mouth. The restaurant will attract more customers by providing quality and healthy food within a cool and entertaining environment to the customers. The prices will be affordable and the food will be served in a clean and friendly environment. Emails containing interior pictures of the restaurant will be sent to prospective customers.

The management will employ three different marketing tactics to increase customer awareness of the restaurant. Delicias most important tactic will be word of mouth or in-store marketing. This marketing strategy has been chosen because it is cheap but has a great potential of attracting more customers. The Local Store Marketing (LSM) will be the second marketing tactic. These marketing plans require low budget plans. However, the use of the media has a wider customer effect but this will not used because the business is just starting and has not generated enough money for the adverts.

Delicias main focus in marketing will be to increase customer awareness among the customers in San Diego and the neighboring towns. Delicias will also direct all of its tactics and programs toward the goal of explaining what the restaurant offers and how it offers to the existing and prospective customers. The products will be priced fairly, keeping standards high, and executing the concept.

Furthermore, there will be no outside marketing for the first sixty days of business. The restaurant will also target festival seasons to attract more customers. However, the management of the restaurant will be careful not to bring in more customers than the restaurant can accommodate and serve effectively.

Pricing Strategy

All menu items will be moderately priced. This will be done by ensuring that the food are of high quality and this will assist the restaurant in being the value leader in the restaurant business within San Diego.

Value Proposition & Competitive Advantage

The restaurant will be properly decorated to add value to the food we are offering at the restaurant. For example, the use of seasonal flowers and palm trees and nice water fountain to accent the outdoor ambiance while the inside will have high ceilings and a stone floor with modern tables and chairs. Serving a variety of food will ensure that the customer gets what they want at once. The restaurant will also host both VIP lunch and dinner and this will be done to assist the management train and introduce the staff to the restaurant customers. The customers will mainly be residents of San Diego, California but we will also invite visitors from other regions. All the visitors at the dual event will receive an invitation for themselves and additional one for their friends/family members free-of-charge. In order to gain a competitive advantage, we will also be serving top quality desserts, soups and appetizers on the premises and seasoned to perfection. With our high dinner volume, there will be no waiting for a food since we will have the restaurant stocked with every degree of doneness. It is apparent that no restaurant has tapped this market.

Target Market

Delicias is faced with the exciting opportunity of being the first mover in a restaurant where quality food is offered in an entertaining environment. The consistent popularity of soup, appetizers and desserts combined with a value price has proven to be the winning concept in other markets and will produce the same results in this venture.

The market has been defined in the following groups as targeted segments. Below are the targeted market segments for the restaurant.

Age -- Delicias will offer food to a wide variety of people across all ages.

Location -- Delicias restaurant will be located in San Diego, California at La Jolla.

Gender - the restaurant will target both sexes with a slight skew for females due to their heavy consumption of salads.

Income level - the products and services will mainly target the high side of low income earners and to all in the middle and upper income bracket.

Social class and occupation - The restaurant will target the white collar workers and young professionals with families.

Education - the restaurant will target both high school graduates and individuals with some college education.

By our definition, we will have very broad appeal for our concept. It is our goal to be the restaurant of choice for the largest community in San Diego.

Competition

In every business, there has to be some form of competition. The direct competitor to my family friendly restaurant would be Sammy's Woodfired Pizza, California Pizza Kitchen and Cheescake factory. The business is unlikely to encounter stiff competition from California Pizza Kitchen and Cheescake factory due to their portions and prices. The restaurant will more gourmet and will be able to compete favorably. Besides the competition from these already established restaurants, there are certain barriers which might affect the restaurant. For example, I still do not have adequate startup funds coupled with high production costs and high marketing costs. Acquiring new customers in San Diego has never been easy for a new business and this is because most customers like attending the restaurants they are conversant with. Most of the staff do not have enough experience in the restaurant business and will require training. The market niche is also over-served with the current restaurants in San Diego and this will make it difficult to acquire a large pool of customers.

There are other factors which might affect the business and these include change in technology, change in government regulations, change in the economy and change in the food industry.

Marketing Strategy

Dalicias intends to cater to the bulk of the San Diego customers. The restaurant will have an average capacity of 400 customers and it is the business' goal to fill all the seats and have everything for everyone every day on the menu. The customers in San Diego are on both fixed limited incomes and seek a value/price kind of service. It is therefore the restaurants objective to meet these needs and desires and this will assist in improving sales within the subsequent years. The restaurant will remain focused on the changing customer needs and change the menus accordingly.

The restaurant will establish two marketing strategies. The first strategy will aim at attracting more customers at lunch time while the second strategy will aim at providing competitive price advantage. Offering a wide mix of food at lunch time will ensure that customers don't miss what they want to eat at lunch time. We will offer quick and light meals at lunch time and avoid heavy meals. The visitors will also be offered French fries seasoned with special blend of spices and these will be displayed on the grill. The pricing strategy will be to keep the price point at lunch time as low as possible in order to keep the business in competition within the restaurant business in San Diego. A single price will be offered which enables the customers get the salads, dessert in addition to the drinks and fries. For example, at $13 the customers will be able to get Roasted Turkey Sandwich served on marble rye bread, pancetta, avocado mayonnaise and mixed sweet potato fries. The customers will also get Banana Coconut Tapioca topped with a fresh berries and a lemon tuile at $6.

These strategies will be adopted to establish a winning strategy for the restaurant that will broaden the business' customer base at lunch. The customers targeted at this time will include teens, singles and professionals while still maintaining our core market segment.

Promotion

The business will mainly rely on advertisement as a means of promoting its products and services. Dalicias will make adverts on table tents, newspapers and brochures. There will also be in-house tour for the customers. The local media will be used from time to time to reach a large number of customers. The use of table tents and brochures are considered the cheapest but are unlikely to get to a large audience.

The aim of these promotions will be to enable the customers understand the kind of services that the restaurant is offering and differentiate the restaurant with other restaurants in San Diego. In addition to these advertisements, the management will display the restaurant's logo on letter head and business cards. The interior of the restaurant will be decorated with attractive colors and also utilizing the colors in the restaurant's logo.

Pricing

There are several factors which will determine the price of the food. The prices will vary according to the time of the day, the season and the food composition. For example, the meals offered at lunch will have a low price as compared to the meals of the same composition in the evenings. This will be done to attract more customers at lunch time. The prices will also be high during the festive seasons and this is because there will be more customers coming to the restaurant than other none festive seasons. Customers who require a wide variety of food composition within a single purchase will enjoy quantity discount and this will see the prices go down. However, the customers who require only a single meal will pay the standard price of the food as stated in the menu.

The customers base at San Diego don't necessary make their purchasing decisions based on price but on the quality of the product and service offered. In order to effective implement the pricing strategy; the restaurant will have to provide other services to the customers such as entertainment within the restaurant and a clean atmosphere.